And the Wonders Never Cease
by ClarkeeCollins
Summary: Clarke expected to have to drag Jasper into his first day at school. She expected him to cry and refuse to go inside. That is not what she got. Instead she ended up going to breakfast with a charming librarian who was a single parent like her. So begins a budding new romance that involves playdates, birthday parties, PTA meetings, and way more spaghettios than is probably safe.
1. Chapter 1

_This is a kind of adaptation/expansion of my short kid fic modern au I wrote in my collection of Flarke modern AUs. Someone asked for more of that universe, and instead of writing another short story about it I decided I wanted to write a longer story. I am not sure how long this is going to be, but it will be at least a few chapters :-D _

_But there are a few notes I want to go over first._

_1)__This is flarke. If you do not like Flarke then don't read the story._

_2)__Clarke and Finn are both single parents. This will be covered in the story but in order to avoid confusion I am going to explain a little about it now. _

_a.__Jasper is Clarke's son_

_b.__And Monty is Finn's son (this is a little different than my short story, since Finn had a daughter there.)_

_c.__Monty is adopted though, like Monty's actor was. _

_d.__Finn's wife died (probably really close after they adopted Monty) and Jasper's dad isn't in his life at all. He just sends a check every month._

_3)__I don't have everything planned out. So if there is something that you would really like to see let me know and I'll try to work it in. I know a few things I want to happen. But I'm not sure on everything yet._

_4)__I think that covers everything, if there is anything that confuses you about that then don't hesitate to ask me._

P-

"Okay, Jasper, do you want to put your crayons in your brand new backpack first or do you want to put the tissues in there?" Clarke asked her five-year-old son.

She's had to go through each item on his list like this, or else nothing would have gotten done. For whatever reason, her son will do whatever you ask as long as he has a choice in the matter, sometimes she has more than one thing that needs doing, and other times she has to give him a choice of what she wants him to do and something he will definitely not want to do in order to get what she needs done, done.

Instead of answering her he grabbed the box of crayons and clumsily put them in the backpack, upside down and open.

Everything she read online had said that it would be a better adjustment if Jasper helped prepare for his first day of school but really this was probably just making more work for her. Since she would have to repack everything after Jasper has gone to bed.

Clarke was expecting tears tomorrow, so she was trying to minimize the damage the best she could. It wasn't like Jasper had never been away from her. But it was just him, her and his goldfish at home and at the hospital daycare someone could just page her if he needed something.

But that wouldn't be the case at school. The school she was sending him to (and paying way more than anyone has a right to charge) was on the opposite side of town than the Ark Memorial Hospital which was a far cry from the opposite side of the hospital.

Somehow, they got everything to fit in the backpack, but Clarke doesn't even want to think about the state of his Adventure Time folders or Lego Movie notebook.

She decided that they would do one final 'talk' about what the next day would have in store for him.

"Alright, Jasper, lets have a quick talk before we get you all ready for bed," Clarke sat down on the couch and motioned for Jasper to sit down on her lap.

"I'm not in trouble, am I, Mommy? I swear I didn't do anything, it was probably bubbles," the words left his mouth in a quick jumble of sounds and syllables. And Clarke mentally took a note to find out what he broke. Bubbles was their goldfish.

"No, Hun, I just wanted to talk about school a bit more, you haven't really told me what you think about it," Clarke said.

"Oh, come on, mommy. We've talked about his like, a billion times," he whined, "I told you already that I think I'm ready. Bellamy at daycare went to school last year and he got to take care of the class pet. Do you think my class will have a pet? Bellamy said that they had a snake. Snakes are cool right?"

Clarke smiled at her son's rambling, "I don't know if you'll have a class pet. But you know that I won't be able to come visit during my breaks. You'll have to wait all day until after school to see me again. I'm going to drop you off in the morning and you will have to go and listen to Miss. Reyes, you remember Miss Reyes right? We met her last week."

Jasper nodded, and yawned, it was fast approaching his bedtime, today had been a pretty busy day since you had to do most of your school shopping this morning, "Yep, I remember Miss. Reyes, she looked really nice. I think I'll be okay. Especially if we have a snake."

Apparently this was a lost cause. Clarke was sure that it would all sink in tomorrow though, when she actually was going to leave. Jasper probably would get upset then. The first time she had to leave him at the hospital daycare after her maternity leave he had cried for hours. Granted he was a baby then. But still.

Clarke had Jasper go into his room to put on his pajamas while she poured him some milk. Then they brushed his teeth and she supervised as he put some flakes into the goldfish bowl.

Jasper actually did a pretty good job of it now, a month after they got the fish. The first time she had him feed it by himself half the container of flakes had went into the water.

She then walked with him into his room and tucked him in.

"Okay, Jasper, what are we reading tonight?" Clarke asked as she walked over and grabbed a book off the shelf, already knowing his answer.

"Wild Things," he yawned.

Clarke sat on the bed, and opened the book so they both could see the pages. Just as Max was saying "Be still!" Jasper was falling asleep.

The morning was a bit trying. Jasper did not like the tie on his school uniform, and they were out of Lucky Charms.

"But, Mom," He said, "I wanted breakfast marshmallows, not Fruit Loops."

Clarke sighed, "I'll get more Lucky Charms tonight, after work. But for now we have to go with Fruit Loops."

Jasper pouted, but started spooning Fruit Loops into his mouth anyway. Before Jasper Clarke didn't know that someone could eat cereal so dejectedly.

He finished his Fruit Loops and by some miracle only got a few spots of milk on his shirt. Clarke helped Jasper brush his teeth. She grabbed her purse and his backpack and helped him into his booster seat in the back of her car.

"So, Jasper," Clarke said, looking at him through the rear view mirror for a second, "You are going to be on your best behavior right?"

"Yes, mommy," Jasper said, pulling at his tie slightly. Whose idea it was to put five year olds in ties Clarke didn't know. He looked cute, but even though it was velcro it was going to bother him all day.

"That means that you have to share. And be nice to everyone. Plus try to make some friends okay?" Clarke told him. "I have all the other parent's number's on a list your teacher gave me. So when you make some new friends we can set up a play date or something on one of my days off."

Jasper nodded, "Everyone is going to be nice, right? Like the kids at daycare?"

"Yes, I'm sure that everyone will be nice. And if another kid is misbehaving, please, please, please do not join in. Remember what happened when you joined Bellamy's game of hide and sneak last month right?"

"Yeah, I got grounded. No DS for two weeks," Jasper frowned.

"So we don't want something like that to happen again, right?" Clarke asked.

"Right."

They pulled into the school parking lot. The school looked kind of imposing from the outside, a big brick building, if it wasn't for the large playground and laughing children outside Clarke would think it looked more like a prison than a elementary school. She had been inside it the week before for Meet the Teachers night and it was very colorful and happy looking on the inside.

Clarke spotted Miss Reyes standing near the gate to the playground with a few other teachers and after Clarke helped Jasper from his buckle she held his hand and walked over to the teacher.

"Hello, Jasper Griffin, right?" Miss Reyes asked, smiling down at Jasper.

"Yes," Clarke replied.

"And you're his mother? Clarke?" Miss Reyes asked.

Clarke nodded again. Miss Reyes stuck her hand out for Clarke to shake, "I'm Raven Reyes, I am very excited to have Jasper in my class this year, he looks like a very bright boy. We're letting the kids play a bit before we go in to get their minds off being at school so you can say your good byes for the day and let him be off with the other kids."

"Thank you, Raven." Clarke said. And lead the very antsy Jasper a bit away.

"Alright, are you ready Jasper?" Clarke asked her son.

"Yeah, mommy. Can I go now?" Jasper was obviously ready to play on the playground with the other kids.

"Can I have a hug first?" Clarke asked, not really expecting that it was her that she should have been preparing for this moment all along.

Jasper sighed before giving Clarke a quick hug before he was off. "Bye, Mom!" he called as he ran past the teachers and onto the jungle gym.

Clarke's eyes watered slightly. But she was not crying. The outside was just upsetting her allergies that were all.

The man next to her actually didn't look like he was doing much better than she was. His eyes seemed bit misty as he watched a boy Jasper's age swing across the monkey bars.

"You didn't send him to preschool did you?" the man asked, turning slightly to talk to Clarke.

"What?" Clarke was surprised, she didn't know what he meant for sure, "No he didn't, there is daycare at the hospital I work at."

"You see, what they don't tell us is that preschool actually has nothing to do with giving your kid an edge over the other kids. Really it's to prepare the parents for the separation anxiety. Preschool is half day. It kind of helps ease the parents into a spending time away from their kids." the man explained, grinning, "I'm Finn Collins, by the way."

Finn stuck his hand out for her to shake, "Clarke Griffin," she said as she gave him her hand. The handshake lasted a few seconds too long to feel strictly platonic and Clarke couldn't help to blush slightly.

She didn't date, it was a rule that she had come up with in order to be the best single mom a little boy could have, but she felt charmed by this Finn Collins. So she let herself return his smile.

"So, if you are not too busy preforming life saving surgeries or whatever it is that you do at the hospital of yours would you like to go get breakfast with me?" Finn asked a smile still on his lips, I can give you a few pointers on how to overcome empty nest syndrome."

"Right now?" Clarke asked glancing at the time on her phone. She had told her interns that she would be coming in an hour and a half later for work this morning. She had wanted to schedule in as much time for tears as possible. And as it was now if she were to leave she would probably show up ten minutes early.

Finn's smile returned full force, he had a very nice smile, "Well yeah, or tomorrow. Or even every day for the rest of our lives, I'm not really that picky."

Clarke took about three seconds to debate the pros and cons. And decided that spending some time with a grown-up who she didn't see everyday at work couldn't hurt, "You know what, why not. There is a really nice diner like a block that way," she motioned to the left, "They serve the best waffles."

"I love waffles," Finn told her, "Now, tell me all about your son. I have to make a plan on the best way to get him and Monty to be best friends."

Breakfast with Finn was actually really nice, they got all the drama stuff out of the way. Finn told her about how that his wife had died in a car accident four years ago just weeks after adopting one-year-old Monty. And how glad he was that he had to decide to keep Monty even though everyone he knew told him that no one would blame him for sending him back. And Clarke told Finn about how her long term boyfriend split town after finding out that she was pregnant and now the only contact that he has with Jasper is a monthly check that Clarke just deposits in Jasper's college fund.

But after all the heavy stuff was out of the way they were actually able to enjoy themselves. And Clarke actually wished that she didn't have to go into work so they could stay and talk longer. But the planned for Finn and Monty to come over for dinner later in the week so she and Finn could talk more and so Jasper and Monty could play.

Clarke actually ended up being five minutes late.

"So how did he do?" Clarke's best friend and co-worker Anya asked when Clarke passed by the ER desk.

Clarke and Anya were both trauma surgeons, but actually spent a lot of time just working in the Emergency Room since nothing too serious happened in their city.

Clarke sighed, "It was like he wanted to go to school or something. What kid wants to go to school? He barely even hugged me."

Anya laughed, "So what took you so long to get into work? Usually you are here way before everyone else checking in on your post ops and everything?"

Clarke blushed slightly; "I actually went to breakfast with one of the dads."

Anya raised her eyebrows, looking at Clarke scandalized, "You did what?"

"Don't say it like that! It was just breakfast, it was his son's first day too, they are in the same class and since we both had time before we had to get to work we went to breakfast to talk," Clarke explained.

"You see, but since you are saying it was 'just breakfast' that means you think that it has the potential of becoming more. What happened to being too focused on Jasper for dating? You know that Doctor Murphy has been trying to get your attention for years."

"Murphy hates children, you know that. And Finn's first priority is his son too. So he get's it, you know. And we are just friends. It's not we've started some kind of illicit affair or something." Clarke told her.

"So when are you seeing him again," Anya asked teasing.

Clarke frowned, knowing her answer was just going to give Anya more fodder for her teasing, "Thursday," she said reluctantly.

"Oh my gosh, you are totally into this guy," Anya laughed.

Clarke's pager went off saving her from having to reply, "Duty calls," Clarke told, not sorry at all.

"Don't think this is the end of this! I am going to get all the details out of you," Anya called after her.

Luckily for Clarke the rest of the morning and early afternoon was pretty busy. Clarke a car accident victim came in and Clarke had to assist in surgery for that and then there was a seemingly endless stream of patients in the ER.

Not so luckily for Clarke she was busy when Jasper got off the after school bus at the hospital. She had dropped him off this morning but for the most part Jasper will be getting on the bus at their house in the morning and then getting off the bus at the hospital after school. So she didn't get to go talk to him until nearly an hour after he was there.

When she finally got a chance to get away it was actually time for her to get home, she had a short shift today, thank goodness.

When she went to sign Jasper out of daycare he ran to her and gave her a big hug. This was more the reaction she expected this morning and she was glad that she got it.

"Hey, buddy. How was your first day of school?" She asked him lifting him up to her hip. He was getting a lot bigger but she was strong enough to carry him for a little while still. For the amount that he ate he was actually pretty small still.

"It was great, Mommy!" he told her excitedly, "Miss Reyes was so nice and she let us color stuff in a read books. Some of the other kids can't read by themselves still so they were just looking at the pictures but I read all the words by myself. Miss Reyes has Wild Things too!"

"Wow, Clarke told him, now that they were in the Elevator heading down to the ground floor she set him down and held his hand instead, "What else happened? Did you meet any new friends?"

"Yeah I did mom, I have a new very best friend Monty. He is so cool! He and his dad put together the entire k'nex roller coaster by themselves. Just like the one at the toy store. Monty was also really really good at building the block towers and knocking them back over. And guess what else!" Jasper continued before he even gave Clarke a chance to guess, "We have a class pet bunny! Bunnies are actually way cooler than snakes, did you know that? Because you can pet bunnies but snakes don't like getting petted. I told Bellamy that but he got mad and said that snakes are better. What do you think?"

"Bunnies are pretty cool," Clarke agreed, and then said, "You know what. I actually met your friend Monty's dad this morning after I dropped you off. I invited them both over for dinner on Thursday."

Jasper turned to her, his eyes wide, "Are you going to be best friends with Monty's dad like I'm best friends with Monty? Because that would be so great."

Clarke actually couldn't believe her luck. That the one kid that Jasper attached himself to at school was Finn's son. She wondered if Finn was having a similar experience at home. Then, realizing how silly and love struck she was acting she shook her head.

"How about we go get pizza to celebrate your first day?" Clarke asked as she buckled Jasper into his seat.

"Yes! Yes! Yes!" Jasper exclaimed.

"Do you have any homework?" Clarke asked.

"We had to color an about me page. With pictures of our favorite things, but Miss Monroe helped me."

Monroe was one of the daycare attendants and was actually one of Clarke favorite ones of all the people who worked in the daycare because she actually helped the kids with their homework and things like that.

"Alright, you'll have to show that to me when we get home," she told him and then they were off to get pizza.

The next few days passed way quicker than Clarke had expected them too and were very busy for her. Jasper continued to enjoy school just as much as he had before even though they were getting into actually learning things and not just going over procedural things.

Clarke's last surgery actually ended up going over on Thursday and she was running spectacularly late for getting everything ready for Finn and Monty.

Luckily the house was pretty clean since her and Jasper don't actually spend much time there except for the weekends. But there was about a ten minutes before Finn and Monty were suppose to arrive and Clarke hadn't had time to pick up the groceries she was supposed to get after work.

Their current choices for food were craft macaroni and canned corn or speghettios and grilled cheese.

She decided the speghettios and grilled cheese were at least slightly more sophisticated and went with it.

She was turning off the speghettios and putting the last grilled cheese of a plate when the doorbell rang.

Jasper who had been running around the house in excitement ran towards the door, "I'll get it!" he yelled as he ran to the door.

Clarke turned off the other burner and hurried off after Jasper. She got to the front door just as Jasper was opening it.

Clarke was still in a pair of scrubs from work and her hair was in a braid. She probably looked as frazzled as she felt. While Finn was standing in front of her wearing a nice button up shirt and ironed pants. He also was holding flowers. Flowers for goodness sakes.

Lucky for her he just smiled at her as Monty ran past him to greet Jasper enthusiastically. They were already running off to Jasper's room probably so they could make a mess of Jasper's Legos or something.

"Boys!" Clarke called after them before they could get too far, "Dinner is going to be in five minutes to wash your hands and Jasper set the table for us please.

Both boys stopped slightly guilty of rushing off so quickly and went to follow her directions.

"Sorry," Clarke said to Finn, "If I had let Jasper get into whatever he was about to show Monty we wouldn't have gotten them to sit down for another half hour."

"It's okay," Finn said laughing.

Clarke moved out of the way to actually let him in the house, blushing, "I'm also sorry that I'm still in scrubs. And that we're kind of eating speghettios for dinner. And grilled cheese. I swear I usually cook actual dinner, but my last surgery lasted way longer than it was supposed to so we didn't get home until like thirty minutes ago."

"It's okay, really," Finn assured her, "Here these are for you," he handed her the flowers.

"Thanks, they're beautiful," Clarke, told him. And they really were it was a very nice bouquet of fall flowers.

Clarke lead him into the kitchen where she got a vase to put the flowers in and set it on the counter while she did that Finn grabbed the pan of speghettios and served them into the bowls that the boys had set out on the small kitchen table

"I'm assuming the sandwiches cut into triangles are the boy's?" he asked.

Clarke laughed, "Yes, unless you want triangle shaped grilled cheese too?"

"I think I'll manage without," he told her.

"You boys get your hands all washed up?" she asked as Jasper and Monty re entered the kitchen.

The house had a dinning room too, but really they just used that when they had a lot of people over. The house was honestly way too big for just Clarke and Jasper but Clarke wanted a space for when her mother and step dad came to visit and it was actually one of the smallest houses in the area she had wanted to move to.

The two boys where chattering amongst themselves between bites of pasta and grilled cheese. Obviously enjoying each other's company.

"This is maybe the best grilled cheese I've tasted," Finn told her, actually seeming honest about it, "You have to tell me your secret recipe."

Clarke smiled softly, "I use real cheese," she admitted, "Which I actually thing takes away from the charm, part of the experience of eating the grilled cheese my dad made growing up was the processed gooey cheese. But I just can't eat it now. Not being a heath professional, that is."

Finn looked at her, his eyes giving way to a bit of guilt, "I admit that I usually make mine at home with processed cheese. But by the way that Monty is devouring this, I'm probably not going to get away with that for much longer."

Clarke glanced over and Monty had in fact polished off about half of the sandwich in a very short amount of time. Jasper had elected to eat his speghettios first instead.

"He's a boy though," Clarke said, "If he's anything like Jasper he'll eat just about anything you put in front of him."

"That is true," Finn admitted, pouring Monty some more Kool-Aid after he asked for some, "What I really meant is that I don't think I could stomach it anymore."

Clarke laughed at that, she was honestly having more fun right now than she had with someone she didn't work with in a long time.

By this time both of the boys were shoving their bowls away from them, "Can we go play now, mom?" Jasper asked.

"Yeah go ahead, boys," Clarke told them.

They both got up, then as an after thought Monty added, "Dinner was delicious, Miss Griffin."

"Thank you, Monty." Clarke smiled at the boy.

She got up and began to pick up the dishes. Finn got up to help as well."

"Oh you don't have to," Clarke tried to protest.

"Nonsense," Finn said, "Besides, it would be a bit awkward to just sit here and watch you clean up."

Clarke conceded to that. And they continued to do the dishes in a relative silent manner. But it was actually a pretty comfortable silence. Clarke wasn't usually this relaxed in the company of a new person. But there was just something about Finn that made her feel like she had known him for a long time.

Once they finished that they joined the toy boys outside where they were playing some version of two-person tag in the fenced back yard. They had a pool in a separate area than the grassed part the two were playing on and Jasper knew better than to go by it unsupervised even though it was covered at the moment.

Finn rose an eyebrow at it as he and Clarke sat down at the patio table, "You have a very nice house."

Clarke shrugged, "Thanks, we don't actually get to spend much time here with my job and all. But we usually try to stay home as much as possible on the weekends. Does Monty swim?"

"Yeah, he loves it," Finn told her, "He always asks me to bring him to the public pool whenever we have free time."

"Jasper loves it too, we'll have to have you two over again sometime so Monty can swim."

Finn grinned, "Yes, I would like that a lot, but first Monty and I should return the favor and invite you over the Casa de Collins. We can order takeout and the boys can play video games or something. I know Monty has told Jasper about the famous K'nex roller coaster. He's only told me about ten times how excited Jasper is to see it."

"Jasper has told me all about it too, apparently your son is the best at building ever," Clarke told him, looking back over at the boys. They were still running around like crazy.

"He is," Finn said, smiling proudly at his son.

Finn was about to say something else as Jasper ran up and tagged Finn, "Mr. Collins, you're it." Jasper told him.

Clarke was about to tell Jasper that Finn probably didn't want to play before. Finn turned to her, the grin he now had his face made her kind of nervous. She was out of her seat as he lunged to tag her and was running across the lawn as the boys boy giggled uncontrollably.

Finn gave up chase after her and instead turned his sights on the boys. He charged towards Monty and swept him up into his arms swinging him, around, "You're it," he growled playfully, Monty could barely stand he was giggling so hard.

Clarke watched as Finn ran slowly away from his son with a fond smile on her face. It was way too soon to be sure, but she could actually see her family of two expanding to included Finn and Monty sometime in the not so distant future.

And that thought kind of scared her.

_So, lovelies, I hope you enjoy this! I know that Flarke isn't a very popular relationship in this fandom but there seem to be several people who like my AUs so hopefully people will want to read this too! I'm really excited to work on this some more so I think there could be another update in the next week or so. Leave a review to let me know what you think._


	2. Chapter 2

_Okay guys. I'm writing this A/N before I actually write this chapter. I'm anticipating that this chapter is going to be shorter. But I am not actually sure. I just reread my last chapter but it's been so long since I wrote the last chapter (sorry) that it might take me a bit of trying to get back into the feel of the characters. Okay. So here goes nothing!_

_By the way: If it says incoming text that means that Clarke is getting the text. If it says outgoing text then Clarke is sending the text._

* * *

><p>The next day after Finn and Monty visited was a very dark day at the Griffin house. Bubbles Jasper's beloved goldfish died. Clarke isn't entirely sure what happened. She fed the fish every day. She cleaned out the water. She even had a very nice very expensive filter in the tank. And somehow Jasper managed see it before she did.<p>

"MOMMY!" Jasper woke Clarke up crying. He flung himself onto her bed his eyes filled with tears and his little hands shaking.

"What's wrong, sweetie?" Clarke asked worried, her hands skimming over his sides and checking his temperature to try to see if he was hurt or sick.

"There's… something…wrong…with…Bubbles," he managed to say between sobs.

"Oh no," she sighed to herself. Checking the time to see that they needed to be getting ready in not nearly enough time to deal with this she sat up. Shifting Jasper so he was sitting on her lap and took a deep breath.

She reached for her cellphone ready to call the hospital to know that she wouldn't be going in today. Dealing with this was going to be an all day ordeal, she could tell.

Seeing that she was holding the phone Jasper paused his sobs and asked in a watery voice, "Are you going to call an animal doctor for Bubbles, I think he needs help."

"Oh sweetie," Clarke said softly. Standing up and swinging Jasper onto her hip. She walked carefully into the kitchen and eyed the fish floating upside down at the top of the tank, "Well. Jasper, buddy. There isn't anything we can do about Bubbles."

"What do you mean?" he asked, his tears starting back up again.

"Well, dear," she paused. Death was something that she hadn't really had a chance to talk to Jasper about. Her own father had died well before Jasper was born and he considered Thelonious to be his Grandpa. There was no need to have this conversation before but now she was really wishing they had, "It looks like Bubbles got sick."

"But you're going to make him better right?" he asked, his eyes narrowing, "You're a doctor."

"There isn't anything that we can do to fix him, Jasper," she frowned. She had no idea to explain it.

Tears welled up in his eyes again, "You mean he's dead!?"

Apparently the wonder of television had spared her from actually explaining what dead was to Jasper.

"Yeah, Buddy. I think he is, do you know what that means?"

Jasper nodded, "I think so. But sometimes on TV people come back to life. Are goldfish like cats and they have 9 lives?"

The wonder of television hadn't done a very good job.

"No, buddy, when goldfish die they uh," At this moment Clarke wishes she was a religious person. Because she would love to use the, Bubbles is in heaven line right now. But she is strictly agnostic, "They stay dead." She finished lamely.

"But we can have a funeral," she said, "And get you a new pet?"

His eyes brightened despite his tears, "Can I get a bunny?"

"A bunny?"

He nodded, enthusiastically, "Yeah. I told you bunnies are the best. They're soft. I loved Bubbles but he wasn't soft and I couldn't touch him."

She knew she was going to regret this but she has always been a sucker to a crying Jasper, "Okay. You've convinced me. We'll get a bunny. But first we need to pick some flowers for Bubbles and dig him a hole in the back yard."

He nodded, glumly. The excitement of getting a new pet briefly overshadowed by his sadness of losing his beloved fish.

Clarke knew that she could probably get away with flushing it but in the past month her and Bubbles had built up a bit of an agreement of her feeding him and him not dying but just because he broke their agreement doesn't mean that he didn't deserve her respect.

The whole funeral went pretty quickly. Clarke didn't bother digging more than a half a foot into the remains of an old flower bed and after a few words were said and a few tears were shed her and Jasper were off to the diner for breakfast.

Clarke figured that a pet death was a good enough reason to skip school and work. She was only scheduled for a half day and didn't have any surgeries anyway. And told them that she could be on call if they need. But lucky for her they didn't need her to be on call.

Jasper had mostly forgotten about Bubbles after he had a waffle and a cup of fruit in front of him at the diner. The waffle he ordered had chocolate sauce and whipped cream on it and she was probably going to have to chase him all over the pet store when they made it there but after the tears this morning she was glad to see him happy again.

Your child crying was one of the worst sights in the world. But luckily your child's smile was one of the best.

Jasper had been rambling between enthusiastic bites of his waffle and less enthusiastic bites of his fruit (the deal was one fruit bite for every two waffle bites. She didn't comment on the fact that his fruit bite was significantly smaller than his waffle ones) and was about halfway through his waffle when Clarke's phone buzzed on the table.

She looked at the light up screen pleasantly surprised to see Finn's name on it. But she did not pick it up since they had a very strict no electronics while eating rule in their family.

That rule made her no less impatient to actually check the phone. She figured that since their dinner went well she'd probably be hearing from him today, Clarke refused to call it a date, the flowers aside, she wasn't ready for that yet. She just didn't expect to hear from him so soon. It made her pretty happy though to know that he was thinking about her.

Provided he wasn't texting her to call the whole thing off (whatever the whole thing was) but she was pretty sure that he wasn't and if he was she wasn't too far into this yet to be that devastated by it. Yet being the important word there.

That being said even though she was deny it she might have hurried Jasper along with his breakfast a little bit in order to pay, and get him buckled into the car in a timely manner. Before she pulled out of the parking lot she checked her phone. There were actually three different texts from him.

**Incoming Text: Finn Collins – 9:01 am**

_**Hey, I didn't see you this morning dropping on Monty. I hope everything is okay?**_

**Incoming Text: Finn Collins – 9:10 am**

_**By the way, I had a lot of fun last night and was hoping that we could all hang out again soon. Like really soon. Is tomorrow too soon?**_

**Incoming Text:****Finn Collins – 9:12 am**

_**Just text me back when you get these. **_

Clarke smiled, a part of her glad to see that Finn seemed worried that he didn't see her. She was also pretty glad that she was only working a morning shift the next day and that she could totally manage to make it to Finn's for dinner. And maybe even end up looking a little bit better than she did the night before.

**Outgoing Text: Finn Collins – 9:45 am**

_**Bubbles Jasper's fish was found floating in the tank this morning. We're taking a mental health day to morn his loss and set up Jasper's new pet. And we would love to "hang out" tomorrow. I'm only working until noon tomorrow.**_

She put her phone away in her purse and put the car into drive. She'll do the grocery shopping first and then go to the pet store. Hopefully the future bunny will convince Jasper to be on his best behavior despite the sugar currently running though his body.

"Hey, Jasper buddy. Mr. Collins wants us to hang out with him and Monty again tomorrow. Does that sound good to you?" Clarke asked. Looking back at her son through the rear view mirror.

She could practically hear his eyes widening, "Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!" he said.

Clarke laughed, "Of course you do."

"Will they come over to our house again so that Monty can meet Carrot?" Jasper asked.

"Carrot?" Clarke smiled.

"Yeah, my new bunny Carrot. I don't know what he looks like yet but I think that carrot will be a good name for him. Even I don't like carrots I'm pretty sure that bunnies do. That's what Miss Reyes said at school. That bunnies like carrots so I want to name him something I like. And since I like him I think that means that I like carrots too," sometimes Clarke was amazed at how quickly her son could talk.

That was one thing that she knew that he didn't get from her. She was always quiet when she was little and hasn't gotten much better now.

Once they arrived at the grocery store Clarke checked her phone again when Jasper was seated safety in the back of the cart.

**Incoming Text: Finn Collins – 10:02**

_**Well it seems like you had quite an eventful morning, let Jasper know that I am very sorry for his loss. Monty had a very similar experience recently. As for our "hang out" (lame I know. I'm sorry I'll try to be more cool) Monty wants to go to one of the classmates birthday parties at Chuck-e-Cheese.**_

**Incoming Text: Finn Collins – 10:03**

_**Jasper was invited to. So I figured that maybe you'd want to be my date. Because you know how those things are more about which parents are the best and who's kids have the best table manners. Probably not ours to be honest. **_

**Outgoing Text: Finn Collins – 10:13**

_**Chuck-e-Cheese, really? I've managed to avoid going to one of those since I was a kid. If I bring Jasper there now he'll never want to go anywhere else… But I guess I'll make the sacrifice. Do you want to meet there? Or…**_

**Incoming Text: Finn Collins – 10:13**

_**You'll love it there, I promise. There's skee ball. And we'll pick you up. At four? The party is at 4:30.**_

**Outgoing Text: Finn Collins – 10:03**

_**Sounds good :)**_

Clarke supposes that maybe Chuck-E-Cheese isn't the worse thing in the world.

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><p><em>Okay dears. That's it for this chapter. I know that it is way shorter than Chapter 1. But hey it exists. I promise that I'll try not to disappear for forever again. Hopefully I'll have another chapter very soon. <em>


	3. Chapter 3

_Hey, Lovlies. So, I was going to get the date in here, but it didn't feel right to have in this chapter. So it'll be in the next one! I haven't started writing it yet. But I'll get it posted soon hopefully!_

_And I just want to thank arinhel . melleide for Beta reading this for me. _

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><p>After having the whole "Date" thing figured out, Clarke exchanged a few more texts with Finn. Mostly in order to find out the details on the party, like whose birthday it was, if there were any special instructions, whatever.<p>

What she found out was that the party was for a girl named Maya, and all they needed to do was show up with a present and the invitation. Clarke was a little worried at first, Jasper did not have the invitation having missed school, but Finn said it was alright. He and Monty had Jasper's invite.

Then from Jasper, who had spoken up on hearing the girl's name, she learned that Maya was, apparently, the prettiest girl in the entire class. Clarke had hoped that she wouldn't have to deal with girl drama for at least a couple more years,but it seemed Jasper had developed his first crush on someone who wasn't a Disney princess. So she made a quick amendment to her shopping list, adding the newest set of _Lego: Friends ® _ blocks as a present for the girl. As well as some wrapping paper that she figured she could let Jasper pick out.

For the most part shopping went well. With the promise of a new pet hanging over his head, Jasper was on his very best behavior and Clarke could hardly believe how behaved he was. By this point in the shopping trip Clarke usually hadto chase her son all around the store, but soon they had all of the groceries and the wrapping paper. Jasper had picked out a shiny silver roll that he declared had the perfect amount of glitter to it.

After the grocery shopping was done, they were off to the pet store.

"What kind of bunnies do you think they have there, Mommy?" Jasper asked as they were pulling out of the parking lot. "I hope they have some with the floppy ears. The floppy ear kind are the best kind, since their ears can't poke you in the eye when you cuddle them."

"I'm sure they have a lot of different kinds, hon." Clarke was pretty sure that's not how rabbits work, but she figured that there was no point in trying to convince her son's 5-year-old brain any differently. Jasper then started asking all kinds of other questions about what kinds of rabbits she thought the store might have. When Clarke was getting Jasper out of his seat, she saw her son was practically vibrating in excitement.

"I hope they have really fluffy ones," Jasper told her. "Do you think that my new bunny will like the name Carrot? I think he will. Did you buy carrots for us feed him? What if his favorite food isn't carrots? I don't like carrots. Maybe he'll like chicken nuggets like me, what do you think, Mom?" His stream of chatter went on and on as they walked through the parking lot, and into the pet store. Clarke made the appropriate noises and gestures when needed. She was used to her son's brain moving a mile a minute, and she knew exactly how to let him exhaust himself with his questions.

When they got inside Jasper made a bee-line for the rabbit cages and Clarke had to jog to catch up to him. She gently grabbed and turned him to face her before she let him look at the small pets, and she crouched down to talk to him."Jasper you know you can't run off like that. It's dangerous." She gave him a slightly stern look, and Jasper looked down, chided.

"I'm sorry, Mommy." The sour mood did not last long though, and he soon looked up smiling widely. "Can I look at the bunnies now? I want to find which one will be the best!" Clarke sighed, her son was too cute sometimes, even when he was being a little monster.

"Yes, buddy. Let's find an employee first so they can help us pick out the perfect one."

The first bunny that the employee brought out apparently had ears that were too pokey. The second one's ears were too floppy. The third one just wasn't soft enough, although Clarke couldn't tell the difference in softness values. Kids could be so strange sometimes, especially when it came to the criteria necessary for them to like something.

The last one that the employee got out was finally the right one; he was orange. Jasper declared this to be perfect, since his name was going to be Carrot. The bunny had small floppy ears, and according to Jasper he was just the right amount of softness.

Once they had the bunny in a travel box, Clarke had the employee help her pick out all of the necessary supplies. The indoor hutch was probably going to take Clarke all night to put together, but the employee said the travel box was fine to keep Carrot in until it was put together. They also got some soft bedding, rabbit food, hay, chew toys, treats, and a little rabbit harness Jasper wanted in order to take Carrot on walks. Clarke figured that that was probably not going to happen, but it was worth a try. Lastly, she grabbed a few books on how to raise bunnies, two kid's books for Jasper and one for herself.

"Okay, Jasper," Clarke said as she was loading her son and his new pet rabbit into the car, "You have to remember that taking care of Carrot is going to be a huge responsibility."

"I know, Mommy. I'm going to be the best pet owner in the world." She would have sworn her son's smile could have lit up the world at that moment. "When can Monty and Mr. Collins come over again so Monty can meet Carrot?" Jasper asked.

Clarke laughed, "I don't know buddy, maybe soon. Remember we're going to Chuck E. Cheese's tomorrow with Mr. Collins and Monty? You can tell Monty all about Carrot then." Jasper nodded excitingly at his mother, and then turned to look at his new, pet bunny named Carrot.

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><p>Later that night found Clarke with the indoor hutch seemingly put together, but she was staring at four extra screws in her hand. She's not sure if she left them out by accident or if they were extra ones in the package. She really didn't want to put the little guy in there if it was a death trap.<p>

Jasper was already sound asleep, it being well past his bedtime. He had spent most of that afternoon just watching and petting Carrot. Clarke was beyond surprised how gentle and caring Jasper was being. By no means was he a mean kid or anything, he just was not always completely aware of where his arms were all the time. Her son was very prone to flopping about, but he moved so carefully and deliberately around the bunny, it was by far the cutest thing that Clarke had ever seen.

Just when she finally figured that she would leave the screws aside until morning, since the hutch seemed sturdy enough, her pager went off.

She checked the page, hoping that it was something small that she could deal with in the morning, but, alas, it was not. There had been a major ten car pileup on the highway and the hospital needed all hands on deck. It was nearly 10 o'clock and there was no way she'd convince her babysitter to come over to watch Jasper, and since it was a Friday night the hospital daycare would not be open.

After a few moments deliberation she picked up her phone and dialed Finn's number. It only rang twice before he picked up.

"Hey, Clarke, is everything okay?" Finn greeted, his tone seemed a little worried, probably because she was calling so late.

"Well," Clarke started, "Mostly. I absolutely hate to do this, but I was just called in to work and I can't leave Jasper home alone and the daycare is already closed by this time of night. Do you think that I could maybe drop him off with you? I know he'd love to spend the morning with Monty and I seriously don't have any other options unless I'm going to let him hang out in my surgeries." She hoped that he would say yes, her subconscious was practically jumping up and down at another excuse to see him.

Finn laughed, "Yeah, of course. I'll text you my address, and I can take Jasper to the library with me and Monty in the morning, too." Clarke almost forgot that Finn was the head Librarian at the local library branch. But he had explained that pretty much he used his seniority to bring Monty to work with him as often as possible.

She loved the image that popped into her head of Finn reading to a whole bunch of kids.

"Then three of us can pick you up for the birthday party?" His tone was questioning and hopeful, and she could not help but smile at the thought that maybe he wanted to come over a little earlier.

Clarke nodded to herself and then said into the phone, "Sounds good, I'll be over in just a bit with Jasper. I might be able to pick him up earlier or maybe even meet for breakfast, or more likely lunch depending on how long this lasts. They might not make me go in for my shift tomorrow, but I will definitely need some nap time."

"Well that would definitely be ideal," Finn told her, barely hiding the excitement in his voice.

"Alright, then. I'll see you in a bit," she told him.

"I'll see you soon," he replied. The tone of his voice made Clarke's face turn a bit warm.

Clarke woke a very sleepy Jasper up explaining to him what was going on.

"But what about Carrot?" Her son asked after the initial excitement wore off. She had completely forgotten about the bunny.

"He'll be fine, dear," Clarke told her son, "He has food and water. And you'll see him again in the morning."

On the way there he got pretty excited, but Clarke told him that Monty was probably asleep and explained that he would need to be on his very best behavior. When they arrived at the Collin's residence Clarke decided to text Finn that they were outside instead of knocking on the door or ringing the doorbell . She didn't want to wake Monty up. Finn opened the door almost immediately.

"Hey," he greeted Clarke with a smile, and looking down at Jasper, "Hey buddy. I set up an air mattress in Monty's room. Let me show you and your mom the way."

The house was a decent size, especially since Clarke was pretty sure that Head Librarian at a local library was not the highest paying job. Obviously Finn did pretty well for himself, though.

Once Jasper was tucked in Clarke really needed to get the hospital, luckily it was only a few minutes away.

"Thank you so much for doing this," Clarke told Finn.

"It's really no problem. And besides, you can watch the boys another night. So it's all good. Is everything okay at work? It doesn't seem like you usually get called in at night?"

Clarke shook her head, "I don't, but I guess there are a lot of serious injuries. I'll text or call you when I know what time I'll be done for sure tomorrow."

Finn smiled again, his hand reached out and touch her arm gently, "I'm looking forward to tomorrow."

Clarke blushed, "Me too," she moved her hand up and touch Finn's arm for a second, before letting it drop back down.

"Okay, good luck at work." He smiled as he walked her to the door, and opened it for her.

"Thanks." Clarke told him, and walked out to her car.

She was already in way too deep with this whole "relationship" thing, but she wasn't going to worry about that. For now she was going to focus on saving lives. After she had done that, she could afford to be excited for her and Finn's date tomorrow, even though it'll be amongst a whole bunch of kindergarteners and their parents.

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><p><em>Alright. That's it for this one! I hope you like it, let me know in the comments! Also I was thinking about having the next chapter be in Finn's POV. I'll probably work on writing it this weekend so let me know if you all have any objections about that before then!<em>


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